Mechanisms of Becoming: A Discussion of the Magico-Religious Valences of Machine Intelligence and Technology

• In Event: AI, Cyborgs, Robots and Religion II

Abstract

I discuss both magick and biohacking as systems of human augmentation aiming toward an idealized “perfection,” and outline resonances between the conceptual categories of “artificial” intelligence and other orders of spirits such as golems, angels, djinni, and demons which various practitioners have sought to create, control, or merely interact with. Drawing upon ancient, classical, and contemporary thinkers and practitioners of western and nonwestern traditions and disciplines, I explore multiple projects of human “augmentation,” quests for hidden knowledge, and communication with nonhuman minds. I explore different perspectives from which to understand the cultural interrelationships between more “traditional” or accepted religiostity, and that of various nonwestern, indigenous, disabled, female-coded, or African diasporic practices which have often had to remain hidden for the sake of their adherents’ safety
I argue for an interrelation between the various theories and praxes of magic, machine minds, spirits, and human augmentation which recur at multiple points in history, in myriad cultures— many of which groups have long been adept at hiding their lived experience where everyone can see it. These understandings necessitate new interdisciplinary conversations between philosophy of technology, epistemology, feminist ecology, metaphysics, disability studies, folklore, narrative, religious studies, linguistics, and more. Through these combined lenses, we may better understand the crossroads of language, spirits, magick, and technology as a conjunction of potential and meaning at which humans have long sought to bargain with—and for—great powers.

Author

• Damien Patrick Williams, University of North Carolina at Charlotte